Aids Cases

As the Seventh International AIDS Conference meets this week in Florence, Italy, Americans might be tempted to take comfort in projections suggesting that the number of AIDS cases will peak in Western countries before the mid-1990s and fall to around 10 percent of the world's total by the end of the decade. Currently, Western countries account for about 20 percent of the world's AIDS cases.But in an interdependent world, it is impossible to take a narrow view of epidemics -- which is why it is foolish to consider AIDS primarily an affliction of any particular community, whether gays or intravenous drug users or any other group of people.

Baltimore officials said yesterday that the city will join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase awareness and education about AIDS. Arts, business and civic leaders met at City Hall for a workshop to talk about ways to reduce the incidence of HIV and AIDS in the city. City health officials said the Baltimore metropolitan area has the second-highest rate of AIDS cases in the country, behind Miami. "We have a serious problem in Baltimore," Mayor Sheila Dixon said before the meeting.

In a clinic in the suburbs, Brian Scott sees daily evidence that AIDS is not just a city problem.He and his staff encounter all kinds of people at all stages of the progressive disease: ailing drug abusers, gay men with full-blown AIDS, pregnant women who have tested positive for HIV and can't afford care.The clinic is in Prince George's County, which last year had Maryland's highest percentage increase (20.3) in AIDS cases, higher even than Baltimore City's (15.9)."People will say, 'HIV is a city disease, and it doesn't affect me,' " says Mr. Scott.

The grim demographics of AIDS have made Maryland one of the states hardest hit by the epidemic.Though 19th in population, the state ranks in the top 10 for two important AIDS indicators: rate per 100,000 population and total cases since 1981.Maryland has the nation's eighth-highest rate, 47.6 documented cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome per 100,000 residents, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.And, with 7,420 Marylanders diagnosed with the fatal disease since 1981, Maryland ranks ninth in cumulative AIDS cases.

When Jeff Collins heard that a minority teen-ager had been diagnosed with HIV in Anne Arundel County earlier this year, he said he became angry. Angry, he said, because despite an array of AIDS awareness campaigns, it was clear some people have not been getting the message. "HIV transmission is worse than ever," said Collins, executive director of Love & Action, a national Christian AIDS ministry based in Annapolis. "We need to remind our young people that if they are sexually active, they are putting themselves at risk for infection."

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Flourishing amid sexual promiscuity, hypocrisy and haphazard prevention, Latin America's AIDS epidemic is on its way to surpassing that of the United States, scientists say.Much of the growth comes from rising infection rates among Latin American women, a fact that doctors attribute to a propensity for homosexual and heterosexual affairs by men and a traditional reluctance to discuss these with their wives.While much of the world's concern about acquired immune deficiency syndrome has focused on Africa, Asia, and the United States, the rising number of infections in Latin America is prompting growing alarm about this region as well.

When Jeff Collins heard that a minority teen-ager had been diagnosed with HIV in Anne Arundel County earlier this year, he said he became angry. Angry, he said, because despite an array of AIDS awareness campaigns, it was clear some people have not been getting the message. "HIV transmission is worse than ever," said Collins, executive director of Love & Action, a national Christian AIDS ministry based in Annapolis. "We need to remind our young people that if they are sexually active, they are putting themselves at risk for infection."

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is failing to address the vastly different needs of minorities with AIDS or HIV, from young black men in jail to immigrants from war-torn Latin American countries, activists charge.And the activists fear that Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan would neglect minority communities today when he unveils a public education program aimed at curbing the spread of AIDS among teen-agers, women and those outside large cities."The needs of the African-American community are very different from the needs of the Latino community," said Paul Kawata, executive director of the National Minority AIDS Council, a non-profit organization that assists local AIDS organizations in minority communities.

The poignant congressional testimony of Kimberly Bergalis has dramatically underscored the National Commission on AIDS' final report. "My life has been taken away," said the emaciated 23-year-old. "I did nothing wrong, yet I've been made to suffer like this . . ."Aside from the circumstances of Ms. Bergalis' infection, this could have been a mantra for the 120,000 Americans killed by AIDS. Another victim, David Barr of New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis Center, noted that, "Although we may have acquired this virus in different ways, I never asked for this, [either]

A forum on AIDS among blacks and Hispanics last night presented statistics from 1991 showing that, for the first time ever in Baltimore County, the number of acquired immune deficiency syndrome cases among minority people exceeded the number of cases among whites.The Minority AIDS Forum was attended by about 100 local black and Hispanic leaders. Their stated goal is stemming the spread of the disease among minorities, largely by establishing community-based AIDS awareness programs.The program at the Liberty Family Resource Center in Randallstown was sponsored by the county Department of Health's AIDS Division and the AIDS Administration of the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.